Whenever the topic of wealth and poverty comes up, people inevitably start talking about boots.
A standard phrase that comes up is “pull yourself up by your own efforts,” which is usually shorthand for “work harder and don't ask for or expect help.” (The fact that this phrase was originally used ironically is rarely acknowledged, since it's literally and physically impossible to pull yourself up by your own strength, but that's a good thing.) Build Wealth The idea that people can build wealth because they work harder than the poor is baked into the American consciousness and wrapped up in the ideals of the American Dream.
But another view of Boots and wealth building paints a more accurate picture of what it takes to rise out of poverty.
Author Terry Pratchett is no longer with us, but his writings live on and are occasionally shared on his official social media accounts. Recently, his Twitter page shared “The Sam Vimes 'Boots' Theory of Socioeconomic Inequality” from Pratchett's 1993 book Men At Arms. This boot theory explains that one reason rich people get richer is because they spend less money.
If you find this confusing, please read below.
Pratchett writes:
“The reason the rich stayed so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed not to spend money.
Let's take boots as an example. He was earning his $38 a month plus an allowance. Really good leather boots cost him $50. But the affordable boots, which were okay for a season or two but leaked badly when the cardboard tore, cost about $10. They were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and he wore them until the soles became so thin that on foggy nights he could tell by the feel of the cobblestones where he was in Ankh-Morpork.
But the problem was that good boots last for years. A man who could afford $50 would still have a pair of boots that would keep his feet dry 10 years later, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent $100 on boots over the same period. . Your feet will still be wet. ”
In other words, people who have a little more money to spend up front often end up spending less in the long run. If he wears the $50 boots for five years, it will effectively cost him $10 a year. But if he can only afford to pay $10 upfront for boots that will last him six months, he will buy them, and in five years he will have paid twice as much.
There are many areas where this principle applies when you are poor. Buying in bulk can save you money in the long run, but you have to be able to afford to pay a large amount upfront. A reliable car that doesn't require regular repairs is more expensive than a beater, but if you can afford just a beater, that's what you're stuck with. It may cost the same or more than buying a new/high quality car, but if you don't have the capital (or credit rating) to begin with, you have few options.
Those who can afford a larger down payment will pay a lower interest rate, saving them money both immediately and in the long term. People who can afford more can buy more with their credit cards, pay off balances, build good credit, and qualify for lower-interest loans.
Once you have the ability to save some cash, there are many good financial decisions and strategies you can make. But you can't do that if you're living paycheck to paycheck.
To climb the economic ladder, you must first reach the bottom rung. People who start anywhere on the ladder can make all sorts of statements about how to climb it. That's really effective and sound advice. if You are already on the ladder. But for people living in poverty, the bottom rung is out of reach, and the walls they must climb to get there are slippery. Being poor costs money.
When people talk about how difficult it is to get out of poverty, this is a big part of what they mean. Ladder climbing advice is useless if you can't actually reach the ladder. Yet so many people condemn giving people any assistance that might help them reach the ladder so they can take advantage of all the great financial advice. why? Perhaps it's because they are born somewhere on the ladder (even if it's the bottom rung) and don't realize that there are people who don't have access to the ladder. Or maybe they don't realize how expensive it is to be poor, and how the cost of poverty pushes people into poverty. I hope this theory will help more people understand and empathize with the reality of poverty.
Money makes money, but so does having money. save money It's money. The more money you have, not only will you have more money to save, but you'll spend less and build more wealth in the long run because you'll be buying quality things that will last. (There's also the reality that he pays $5,000 for shoes that the super-wealthy only wear a few times, but that's a completely different story than boots.)
Thank you, Terry Pratchett, for the simple explanation.
This article was originally published on January 28, 2022.
